Warm October weekend

Second weekend in October and the leaves and changing beautifully and the temperature is in the 80’s.

 

I went to church in (nice looking) shorts and sandals just because I could. I wasn’t the only one.

 

Went for a mountain bike ride this afternoon. Went west to Beck Lake, and the north along the Des Plaines Forest Preserve path Alison Woods, stopping at River Trails nature center along the way.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been there – it used to be a popular place to take Beth and Abby.  Beth used to feed the ducks and geese loaf after loaf of bread, but when we went with Abby they’d stopped encouraging and discouraged feeding the birds. Now it’s prohibited.

 

I’ve never seen so many people on this trail. I think it’s not just the weather, but the fact that they put down some gravel so the trail is better, and finished the connection farther south through Des Plaines.  Now I think there’s only one minor gap preventing the trail from being continuous from Madison St up to the Wisconsin border, which has to be about 50 miles. It’s a great bit of quasi-wilderness in the urban area.